Media devices, such as a set top box, a stereo, a television, a computer system, a game system, or the like, are often configured to communicate audio information to a user's audio headset. The audio headset user can view presented video content on a display, such as their television (TV), while listening to the corresponding audio content using their audio headset. The audio content may be communicated to the user's audio headset using a wire-based medium when the audio headset is communicatively coupled to the media device using a wire-based connector. Alternatively, the audio content may be communicated to the user's audio headset using a wireless-based medium when the audio headset is communicatively coupled to the media device using a suitable wireless transceiver.
Wireless communication of the audio content requires various processing steps. Each processing step introduces a delay in the final presentation of the audio content on the user's audio headset. For example, but not limited to, the original audio content must be split off from the originally received video/audio content stream. If the audio headset is a wireless type device, the audio content must be converted into a wireless medium format, and then communicated to the audio headset. Finally, the wireless audio headset must detect then wireless signal with the audio content, and then process the wireless signal to generate a signal that is reproducible as sound using the speakers of the wireless audio headset. Accordingly, the output of the video content and the output of the audio content may not be in synchronism when the delay times of processing and presenting the video content is different from the delay times of processing, communicating and presenting the audio content.
Various systems and methods have been devised to correct for the above-described video/audio synchronization problem for a wireless audio headset. Essentially, a delay in presentation of the video content and/or the audio content is implemented so that the video content and the audio content are presented in synchronism (or at least substantially in synchronism with each other so that the user substantially perceives that video content and the audio content are synchronously presented).
However, in some situations, multiple users may wish to simultaneously view the video content while individually listening to the audio content using their own personal audio headsets. For example, the multiple users at an apartment complex where watching a loud action movie late at night using their stereo system with external speakers may not be practical. Accordingly, the multiple users may watch the movie video content on their large screen TV while listening to the audio content using their own audio headsets.
A problem not addressed in the prior art is synchronism of video content presentation with audio content when the audio content is presented on multiple wireless and/or wire-based audio headsets. This problem becomes particularly complex in view that there are a wide variety of different types of wireless audio headsets in the market place, each with different inherent audio content processing time delays.
Further, a wire-based audio headset may be inherently synchronized with the presented video when the media device is sourcing both the video display and the wireless audio headset. Synchronism corrections to a concurrently user wireless audio headset will then cause the wire-based headset to become out of synchronism with the video content.
Accordingly, there is a need in the arts to provide enhanced synchronism of video content presentation with audio content when the audio content is presented on multiple wire-based and/or wireless audio headsets.